Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.invest From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: invest Fri, Jun 19 1992 Date: Fri, 19 Jun 92 05:24:16 EDT Message-ID: 06-19 0000 DECISIONLINE: Personal Investing USA TODAY Update June 19-21, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network STOCKS EXTEND DECLINE: Stock prices fell Thursday for a third straight day amid sharp declines overseas and economic pessimism at home. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 13.64 points to 3274.12, bringing its three-day loss to 81 points (2.4%). Other indexes also fell. Losers trounced winners 1,136 to 598 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was heavy at 226 million shares. WORLD MARKETS ON THE DECLINE: U.S. stock markets aren't the only ones heading south. Markets around the world are slumping, and it's unclear when they'll turn up. Morgan Stanley Capital International's index of 20 global stock exchanges is down 4% this month. The Dow is also down 4%. "Markets around the world have lost their momentum," says Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. (For more, see special World package below.) AMD PLUMMETS ON RULING: Shares of Advanced Micro Devices fell 5 1:2, or almost 40%, to $9 in a massive sell-off Thursday on a California jury's ruling Wednesday that AMD doesn't have rights to use crucial software from arch-rival Intel. The software would have allowed AMD to build a computer chip that mimics Intel's 486 microprocessor - the brain inside many state-of-the-art personal computers. PAGENET A BUY: Paging Network, a company that has made a big splash in the USA's telephone beeper business, is a great buying opportunity, say many money managers and stock analysts. It is among companies with a hint of speculation whose stock has fallen to realistic levels. PageNet went public in October at $18 and by early January was up to $25 1:2 a share. The stock closed at $18 1:4 Thursday. STOCK SAID TO BE WORTH $24: Steve Barry, manager of Alliance Quasar fund, says the amount of cash beeper company Paging Network generates and its prospects for even higher cash flow ahead make the stock worth $24 to $26 a share. "It should be there now," he says. Analysts say the outlook for PageNet is too solid to ignore. Among its strengths: Low costs, aggressive growth plans and new opportunities. CONAGRA IMPRESSIVE: Portfolio manager Charles Smith of J. & W. Seligman says he's impressed with ConAgra's stock because it didn't plummet last week when the company said that earnings will be flat for the fourth quarter, which ended May 31. ConAgra closed at $24 3:4. Smith blames that on a shift to cyclical stocks. He sees ConAgra's stock easily hitting $33 in 12 months, $40-plus in two years. RCP SEEN FALLING TO $8: Rockefeller Center Properties' dividend, running at an annual rate of $1.92 a share, is in for a big cut - at least to $1 and maybe to 50 cents, says money manager Lance Lessman. Lessman, who runs LL Partners, a New York firm with $25 million of assets, sees the stock, which closed Thursday at $14.25, dropping to as low as $8. Lessman thinks both forecasts could be realities by next June. M2 UNCHANGED: A broad measure of the nation's money supply was unchanged in the week ended June 8. Economists consider lack of growth of the money supply a bad sign for the economy. M2 - which counts cash, checking accounts and money market mutual funds - remained at $3.5 trillion. GOLD UP, SILVER MIXED: Gold prices increased, but silver was mixed Thursday. On the Commodity Exchange, gold bullion for current delivery settled at $342.60 a troy ounce, up $1.40. Republic National Bank said gold rose 75 cents to $342.15. Silver bullion fell in London to $4.09 from $4.11. On the York Comex, silver closed at $4.088, up from $4.084. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON WORLD: MEXICO, JAPAN DOWN THIS MONTH: Mexico has been a big loser. The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores index rebounded from a recent weakness Thursday, climbing 41 points to 1,634.29. Still, it's down 14% this month. In Japan, the Nikkei average closed down 400 points to 16,046 Thursday. The Nikkei was down 11% this month prior to trading Friday when it rose 474 points to 16,519. In Argentina, stocks were down sharply Thursday. U.S. MARKETS SLUMPING TOO: U.S. investors shouldn't feel so bad because of the weakening Dow. Not only is there a global slump, broad sections of the U.S. market have been weakening much of the year. The NASDAQ index has been falling since Feb. 12, when it reached its peak of 644.92. Thursday, it fell 4 points to 549. It's now down 15% from its peak. The S&P 500 index is down 4.5% from its yearly high. DOW SEEN HITTING 3200: "We've had a Dow that's been out of sync with other indexes," says Pete Keane of Interstate:Johnson Lane. "That's created the misimpression that all stocks were holding up better than they actually were." Some analysts think the Dow will head lower soon to get in line with other averages. Analyst Gregory Nie says he wouldn't be surprised if the Dow hits 3200 in the next two months. (End of package.) DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Friday at 3274.12 after closing down 13.64 Thursday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 220.61, down 0.84. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 377.49, down 2.25. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 549.17, down 4.07. DOLLAR OPENS MIXED OVERSEAS: The dollar opens mixed on Friday. It opens at 0.5364 British pounds, down from 0.5394; 5.2725 French francs, up from 5.3110; 1.5654 German marks, down from 1.5767; and 126.61 Japanese yen, down from 127.27. (As of 3 p.m. Thursday. Source: First American Bank of New York.) 24-HOUR TELEPHONE INFORMATION: USA TODAY Money Hot Line. 95 cents a minute. 1-900-555-5555. Personal Investing Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM